Former Vice President Mike Pence has used his first interview since the midterm elections to publicly disagree with his successor, Vice President JD Vance, over why Republicans lost control of Congress - rejecting Vance's claim that the war in Iran was the reason, and saying voters were frustrated because the administration "stopped short and didn't finish it."
Vance set out his reading the morning after Election Day. "The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," he wrote. Citing an unnamed pollster who had studied voters who had abandoned the party, Vance said those voters wanted the administration to end the conflict, address inflation and the cost of living, put America first and change its relationship with Israel.
Asked about that assessment in the exclusive interview, Pence answered: "I disagree with the vice president about the reasons for the midterm election outcome."
"There's no question that the war in Iran became a frustration for millions of Americans, but it wasn't because President Trump started the war or took on Iran. It's because we stopped short and didn't finish it," Pence said. "As Americans saw the politics of appeasement that the administration embraced, one negotiation after another, I think people became... frustrated with the lack of progress, frustrated with the price of fuel at the pump."
"The reasons for this midterm election were much more complex than gasoline prices or the war in Iran. So, I respectfully disagree with my successor in that regard."
President Trump has himself acknowledged that the Iran conflict contributed to the losses, while maintaining that the operation was necessary and that he would authorise it again - his case is that confronting Iran protects Americans over the long term, whatever the short-term political cost. The replies to Pence were blunt. A Vance ally said Pence "had to retreat into the think tank world because his politics never developed past the Bush-era neocon warmongering that dragged us into the Middle East in the first place. He is laughably out of touch with how people feel in the real world." White House spokesman Davis Ingle said Pence's "total and complete lack of courage caused untold damage to our great country."
Pence ranged well beyond the war. "I believe our voters rejected President Trump's redirection of our movement toward protectionist tariffs, toward policies of appeasement toward Russia and even Iran, toward marginalizing the right to life, and I think the era of corruption around the Trump administration was very concerning to millions of Americans, including our voters," he said. He pointed to the administration's handling of abortion medication, and said: "I don't think you can ignore the air of corruption that's emerged around this administration, the self-dealing. The American people saw a First Family seeing their wealth increase by more than $3 billion including more than a billion dollars in cryptocurrency." Those figures are Pence's own. Asked whether the president and his family had improperly profited from the White House, he answered: "I wouldn't have any way of knowing and wouldn't care to speculate." Fox News' own Voter Poll found 55 percent of respondents called government corruption a "crucial" factor in their vote for Congress, with another 36 percent calling it a major factor.
Pence also aimed at Vance's office over Israel. He said he has "great concerns about what I've heard coming out of the vice president's office with regard to Israel." "If the world knows nothing else, the world should know that America stands with Israel. Israel is our most cherished ally," he said, adding that he is "very troubled at the way that criticism of Israel on the left and on the right collapses too often into antisemitism and antisemitic rhetoric."
For ordinary Americans, the argument between the two vice presidents is about the costs families feel most directly. Vance's reading puts the war's burden - fuel prices, inflation and the cost of living - at the centre of voters' anger. Pence himself named "the price of fuel at the pump" as part of the frustration, though he blames an unfinished campaign rather than the decision to fight. On tariffs, the administration's case is that they protect American industries and the workers in them and give the United States leverage over trading partners; Pence's case is that they are a departure from the free-market principles he says made the country strong and prosperous. Which reading is right will be tested at the pump and on store shelves.
The results themselves were sweeping: Democrats took a large House majority, control of the Senate and a majority of the nation's governorships. Pence's verdict: "It wasn't just a rout, it was a reckoning." "I don't think the American people turned left. I think they were turned off, and that's what explains the outcome of this election," he said, urging Republicans to "recommit our party to the conservative principles that have defined our movement for more than 50 years." Pence, who served as vice president in President Trump's first term, sought the Republican nomination in 2024 and now leads the conservative group Advancing American Freedom.
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